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"Jesse Crawford at the Paramount Theater Organ, " Illustration Painting by Boyd

About the Item

This extraordinary painting brings together two remarkable talents -- John Rutherford Boyd, the superb painter and illustrator, who captures this scene -- and Jesse Crawford, one of America's most famous theatre organists of the 1920s and 1930s. Here, Crawford is shown playing the magnificent thirty-six rank Wurlitzer pipe organ in the Times Square Paramount, and the curtain behind indicates the nature of the occasion: "Paramount Feature Program...Jesse Crawford Organ Recital" . The organ was based on Wurlitzer's largest standard model, the 285, which was also installed in the San Francisco Granada Theatre. The theatre and adjoining office building was built by Adolph Zukor, President of Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, as the flagship theatre for the Paramount chain and headquarters of the Publix Theatres Corporation. It was located on the west side of Broadway between 43rd and 44th Streets. The pipe organ was tonally finished by Dan Papp under the direction of Jesse Crawford, who specified that the organ was to include certain ranks: the three Tibia Clausa, certain of the string and diapason ranks and the four Vox Humana . Crawford, shown in this scene, had been lured from Chicago to be chief organist at the Paramount, and played there from 1926 to 1933. Sadly, the Paramount was closed in 1964 and later demolished, but the pipe organ was saved and moved to the Century II Convention Center in Wichita, Kansas, where it continues to be played today. The painter Boyd is widely respected for his witty and insightful paintings that comment on life in the 1920s and 30s; we suspect this painting was commissioned for the cover of a program booklet. (Dimensions include the frame; painting image is 23" high by 12" wide.)

Creator:

Jack Boyd (Painter)

Dimensions:

Height: 35.25 in (89.54 cm)Width: 23.25 in (59.06 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)

Style:

Art Deco (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Paint,Painted

Place of Origin:

United States

Period:

1930-1939